From western Australian museum walls to our very own South Yorkshire garage doors!
We couldn’t believe our luck when international street artist, printmaker and emcee Kid Acne agreed to replace the graffiti on our city centre building with some mural art. After renovating the former print house at the Don Press, Sheffield in 2015, we felt it was time to focus on the outside of the building. Our MD James Biggin explains how it all came about:
“I was getting a bit down when coming into the office every day and seeing more and more graffiti on the garage doors. So I decided to share my feelings with my LinkedIn community on the off-chance someone would have an idea or suggestion of what to do about it.”
“The response was considerable. So many people gave ideas and a couple of names kept coming back a lot. Kid Acne was one of those and I just felt his style was great as well as him being a Sheffield-based artist. After speaking with the team, it was unanimous – we all wanted him to create something for us.
“I wanted to give him a blank canvas to do whatever he wanted and not be limited by our brand and concepts. He was happy with this and said that was just a perfect way to do it.”
Kid Acne painted several from his signature ‘Stabby Women’ motif – female warriors who are typically a fusion of Norse mythology and South American and African heritage.
The artist has previously said of the strong female characters – of which there are several around Sheffield city centre: “Ultimately the Stabby Women were me trying to present an alternative to the very misogynist characters you’d see in graffiti.”
James added: “I didn’t expect it to go as well as it has, and I am really touched and surprised by the interest it has received in terms of being noticed by people and online sharing.
“It now makes me smile when I arrive at work. All the team are really pleased too and have even likened themselves to the characters Kid Acne has created. I still think they all need names!”
Thank you to Unltd Business for featuring our story.
